Inside Pitch

Has there been even one series this year where you looked at the series preview and genuinely felt the pitching match-ups favored the Angels? For most of this season it's felt like the team has gone into the bottom of the first already behind.. It starts with the rotation and this is the weakest its been in a generation. The really funny part is there will be Angels fans who think the solution next winter will be to sign Headley to play 3b.

So the team has weaknesses? And he's managing to his weaknesses to expose them?? The weaknesses are real.... You're being really pretty delusional. This bullpen is a freaking joke,. Anyone that thinks they could manage it better is full of it. He's currently got Frieri and Downs and a bunch of guys that aren't close to being proven. Burnett's been available for what? 40% of the games they have played.. if that. They are going to have to play thought this awfulness and either get right or figure out who they will trade to bring in some talent.

Marc Russo was hired in November of 2010. Clay Daniels was fired in June of 09. So two entire drafts and signing periods passed between the two moves. That's impossible to defend.

Honestly, that article reads as much about Scioscia not needing to deal with the BS as it does the team needing to replace him. The funny part. Everyone knows if MS had been asked if he wanted more offense or better pitching he would have opted for more pitching in each of the last two years.. Look at this team... Go ahead and argue MS was wrong.

The Latin American thing was a failure on several fronts. Clay Daniels was a crook it turns out but he was actually pretty good at his job. When they cut him and his people loose, nobody was brought in to to replace them. This makes me question how deeply Stoneman is still involved as he was a massive proponent of international scouting and it was under him that the Angels were said to have quadrupled the number of scouts and their scouting budget. Daniels was fired and NOTHING was done. NOTHING. If this was because Moreno was fully vested in what TR was advising then yeah, I blame him completely. TR lacked Stoneman's ability to find able lieutenants, and he showed himself completely incapable of making decisions on talent himself.

The only thing I really blame Arte for is his trying to appease a fanbase that for the most part ignored the importance of run prevention and simply thought the answer to everything was more power hitters. There are a lot of things going wrong, much of which can't be blamed any one person but ultimately someone will take the fall. Most likely to appease the fans. IMO, Firing Dipoto, even if he is responsible for this MLB roster would be a mistake. You cant change an organization in under three years. So the easy target is the guy everyone already wanted to fire anyway.

He's actually on a good run. Last three starts, 20 innings, 4.05 ERA -- only one HR given up. Of course he's allowed a shit-ton of baserunners. So, I guess he's been luckier than he's been good. As bad as he's been.... The guy people bemoaned not getting for a little more money, Brandon McCarthy has been even worse.

Right, Wayne Huizinga was the owner for the first and Loria had just picked up the team from John Henry and company when they won in 2003. Nobody has ever given Loria any credit for the 2003 Championship.

Bill Stoneman has forgotten more about how to put a farm system together than Jerry Dipoto has managed to learn. To be fair, he had Gary Sutherland, the architect of the Expos impressive talent pipeline, but the "mess" he inherited from Bill Bavasi was significantly worse than what Dipoto has had to deal with and he didn't have an owner willing to buy it's way out of the mediocrity. Bill Stoneman took the farm from where it was ranked 30th overall to 1st within 5 years, in-between he won a WS.. The fruits of his labor have carried the Angels for much of the last decade. He bored the piss out of me too and there is no denying he was extremely conservative which plays to his background in banking, an industry that's all about risk aversion. It amazes me how much people tend to dismiss the impact he had on the franchise, or how much his footprint is STILL on this team. Gary Sutherland BTW was a straight out scouting savant.

There were signs Haren was on a slippery slope, but I don't fault the Halos for having made the move... They were thinking at more than one year and Haren did have a history of being a workhorse. It looked like a good move until he imploded.

Pena and Hellweg would be legit candidates to walk the bases loaded. In Pena's case he's a good candidate to give up a HR as well, he;s not fared well since moving out of a pitcher friendly situation in Arkansas. It's not often that guys who struggle to throw strikes as badly as Pena get worse and yet Pena's command has in fact regressed. Donn Roach was a legit prospect who throws a really heavy ball.

Bases loaded, 2 outs, extra innings, in the snow, uphill both ways, on a Tuesday... What's he do?

Normally I'd agree with you but left handed junkball types always look hittable. Seeing Roth pitch in the CWS, he seemed to get better as his stuff got softer. I haven't seen enough of this guy to make any bold claims but, I really am looking forward to seeing whether or not the Rangers will swing at his non-strikes. Unless people were Gamecock fans there really isn't much of a book on him professionally. .

Yeah... its going to take more than one game.. Nevermind that he is arguably the second best 2B in club history or that his career numbers in HIGH LEVERAGE situations is higher than his career averages overall. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=kendrho01&year=Career&t=b#lever, If anything, it can be argued he's falling off the clutch/high leverage boat in recent years from where he was through 2010 or so. It's okay. You can just come out and say you don't like him cause you believed he was a future batting champion.

Hellweg and Pena won't be. At best they might manage careers as the last man in the bullpen, if things break right. Last time I looked they both had BB/9 Rates over 6.00.

Ervin Santana.

If that's the view from the new press-box, they don't have it so bad. Stupid, petty, little article from a writer who is obviously butt hurt.

Arbitration process says hello.

So what? Blanton's money is spent, if Richards has indeed taken a massive step forward then its cause for celebration. Phily used Blanton as a swingman off and on.

Just out of curiosity -- Do you really think his comments have ANY impact on ANYTHING? Would you somehow feel better about the situation if he took blame for pitchers pitching exactly the way their skill set's say they would or is it just a case of you wanting him to take blame for things to validate your opinions? Look, I'm not a fan of Butcher's, but outside of Chili Davis and Dave Duncan, I'm not a fan of coaches as a whole. Butcher has a bunch of guys who have always given up a lot of fly balls and HRs. Early on they have given up a lot of fly balls and HRs... Outside of reinventing who they are he's pretty much got to stay the course and they have to pitch to their ability. BTW, Fernando Rodney is looking like the Rodney everyone had seen prior to last year.. He has a WHIP near 2.00 and an ERA over 7.00. Is he back to being Fernando Rodney? Does that pitching coach need to be fired? Is he pitching to his talent level or is it just early and he is working out the kinks? Somehow someone will take this post as a defense or Butcher.

I don't think he should be fired, but, he is clearly at fault for this rotation. He wanted to employ certain principles in the hopes that players with a certain skill set would work out well in a certain environment -- namely pitchers park with plus defensive OF... Problem is he may gone too far in one direction. People here love to say the team has underachieved the last three years when in reality, it's pretty much performed to what it's talent level has been. The minor league depth was becoming an issue, the pen was allowed to fall into disarray and every move made to try to stave off the decline impacted both of those situations. FA's cut into the influx of talent, and trades made to compete impacted the number of arms that could be used in the pen. It's not something people like to talk about but Nick Adenhart's death and the the complete lack of action in the international market have really hurt this team. Right now, I'd argue Dipoto erred building this rotation. Most would argue that any team with this sort of payroll can't just brush it off as a mistake and stay the course, but that may very well be the best option. Unfortunately, fan expectations and the "need to win" will demand a head on a pike and both Dipoto and Sciocia will catch the brunt of it. But, if this team needs to win it needs to allow for the plan to work long term. If this team starts switching gears and philosophies every two years -- it's back to the Autry era 80s Angels. I wan't no part of it.

Fan perception... I love fan perception. Pretty sure it was fans that felt the Angels needed to add more offense and were sick of those punch and judy pitching rich teams that were boring and won. But hey -- the fans know better because, they pay to see the team and they have the luxury of hindsight. Not sure what industries or backgrounds others have, but Rah-Rah bullshit and end of the world histrionics may make for good theater but are a horrible actual working environment. My guess is this team will press less if it's not in the hole by the third inning of every game. People can blame the manager and everyone all they want, but if people think these players aren't aware of what happened last year and the noise being made by the fans and the media then they are deluding themselves. Fan perception, and the resulting backlash may very well lead to an even bigger mistake.

Then your expectations were a bit off. 5+ runs a game would be a minimum of 810 runs, which isn't impossible but nobody was actually able to do last year. 2012 - None 2011 - NYY, Boston, Tex,. 2010 - NYY, Boston. Five teams have averaged 5 or better runs per game the previous three seasons. Know how many teams have allowed as many as 5.64 games per games like the Angels are currently doing over that period? NONE... You have to go back to 2006 to find a team that posted an ERA that high, the 100 loss Royals. Prior to them you have to go back to the 2003 Texas Rangers. When you consider the Angels home park, the numbers are that much uglier. This rotation is not giving the team ANY chance to win. And this rotation is exactly the rotation the GM worked to build.

The uptick in BB is nice for Grichuk, and he's 21 in an age 23 optimal league.

I don't think anything is imminent. Dipoto is likely banking on players reverting to their mean. Fans are acting up cause fans are fans.. But, I'd assume Dipoto and company are likely waiting this out for a bit.